e have cut their
bridges behind them."[47]

[Footnote 47: French _Yellow Book_, No. 30.]

The _Yellow Book_ throws further light upon the extraordinarily petty
finesse, with which the chancelleries of Berlin and Vienna attempted
to take a snap judgment upon the rest of Europe. We learn from Exhibit
No. 55 that Count Berchtold had given to the Russian Ambassador at
Vienna, prior to the issuance of the ultimatum, an express assurance
"that the claims against Servia would be thoroughly acceptable," and
that upon this assurance Count Schebeko had left Vienna on a leave of
absence. During his absence and at a time when the President of the
French Republic, the French Premier, and its Minister of Foreign
Affairs were far distant from Paris and on the high seas, the
ultimatum was issued, and, as we have seen, Count Berchtold
immediately betook himself to Ischl and remained there until the
expiration of the brief time limit in the ultimatum.

The same policy was pursued with reference to other Ambassadors, for
when France instructed its representative in Vienna "to call the
attention of the Austrian Government to the anxiety aroused in Europe,
Baron Macchio stated to our Ambassador that the tone of the Austrian
note and the demands formulated by it permitted one to count upon a
pacific denouement."[48]

[Footnote 48: French _Yellow Book_, No. 20.]

In the same communication, in which this information is embodied, we
gain the important information that "in the Vienna Diplomatic Corps
the German Ambassador recommends violent resolutions whilst declaring
ostensibly that the Imperial Chancellery is not _wholly_ in agreement
with him on this point."

Pursuant to the same ostrich policy, the German Secretary of State, as
we have previously seen (_ante_, pp. 71-75), gave to both the French
and English Ambassadors the absence of Count Berchtold at Ischl as an
excuse for the failure of Germany to get any extension of the time
limit, and not only did he assure them repeatedly and in the most
unequivocal way that the German Foreign Office had no knowledge of,
or responsibility for, the Austrian ultimatum, but when on July the
25th the Russian Charge requested a personal appointment with von
Jagow in order to present his country's request for such an extension,
the German Secretary of State only gave "him an appointment at the end
of the afternoon, that is to say, _at the moment when the ultimatum
will expire_," and in view of